Carychiinae | |
---|---|
Apertural view of a shell of Carychium minimum | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): |
clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura |
Superfamily: | Ellobioidea |
Family: | Ellobiidae |
Subfamily: |
Carychiinae Jeffreys, 1830 |
Synonyms | |
Zospeidae Brusina, 1886 |
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
Zospeidae Brusina, 1886
Carychiinae is a taxonomic subfamily of minute air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.
Carychiinae is part of the family Ellobiidae according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
Some authors consider Carychiidae as a separate family.
Genera within the subfamily Carychiinae include:
One lineage of the Ellobioidea, the Carychiidae has successfully accomplished a complete transition onto land. Extant carychiid snails inhabit aphotic and permanently wet epigean (Carychium) or subterranean (Zospeum) environments throughout their Holarctic distribution. This dramatic shift from a marine to a terrestrial habitat has occurred independently of the stylommatophoran land-snails of the Eupulmonata.
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